Delving into AD&D: Parrying and other combat options.

Parrying disallows any return attack that round, but the strength "to hit" bonus is then subtracted from the opponent's "to hit" dice roll(s), so the character is less likely to be hit.

Falling Back is a retrograde move facing the opponent(s) and can be used in conjunction with a parry, and opponent creatures are able to follow if
not otherwise engaged.

Fleeing means as rapid a withdrawal from combat as possible; while it exposes the character to rear attack at the time, subsequent attacks can only be made if the opponent is able to follow the fleeing character at equal or greater speed.

Even after 30 years still finding stuff I didn't know back in the day.

The parry rule where you give up your attack goes all the way back to Chainmail. It's a suckers choice. As a DM, I don't know if it's cheating to make the monster attack some other non-parrying PC as the PC who is parrying isn't a threat anymore.

I didn't like that rule either, I replaced it with something that gave the level of the defender as a penalty if I recall correctly? For low-level play giving a fixed penalty probably works just as well. However, given the nature of the D&D combat system, I could never figure out why you'd waste your attack to parry unless you're really low on hit points, so it's really only a cover for the "withdrawal" step in any case. So why not roll it into that one?

“A player may elect to have a character parry an opponent’s blow. He must announce that he is going to do so before the opponent strikes. The parry subtracts 3 from one designated opponent’s die roll.”

The person parrying rolls d12 (instead of d20) to hit for his next attack (s).

“If defender is parrying or using a shield, and the opponent makes his to hit roll and gets exactly the number needed, the parrying weapon or defender’s shield may be SHATTERED, but no damage is inflicted. It takes one round to draw a new weapon, but one in the off-hand can be employed immediately.”

this house rule makes even high level fighters dangeroous when on the defensive; mages - not so much, but they could could get lucky on a poorly armored opponent.

Bat in the Attic Games

How to make a Sandbox

The Old School Renaissance

To me the Old School Renaissance is not about playing a particular set of rules in a particular way, the dungeon crawl. It is about going back to the roots of our hobby and seeing what we could do differently. What avenues were not explored because of the commercial and personal interests of the game designers of the time.

What are RPGs?

A game where the players play individual characters interacting with a setting with their actions adjudicated by a human referee.

Rules are an aide to help the referee adjudicate actions and to help the players interact with the setting.

Dice are used to inject uncertainty which make a tabletop RPG campaign more interesting than "Let's Pretend".

The only thing a player needs to do to roleplay a character is to act if he or she was really there in the setting in that situation.